Egan May Be Leaving the Archdiocese Soon, Now That a Historic Visit Has Ended

For Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the visit of Pope Benedict XVI was one of the highlights of his eight-year tenure as leader of the Archdiocese of New York. On Sunday, he escorted Benedict to ground zero and helped him celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium before seeing him off at Kennedy Airport.

On Saturday, the cardinal prayed in St. Patrick’s Cathedral with the pope and then rode with him in the Popemobile through the streets of his archdiocese, which recently completed the celebration of its bicentennial.

Serving as host to Benedict was quite likely his swan song.

Cardinal Egan, head of the Archdiocese of New York — and its 2.5 million Catholics in three boroughs and seven counties — was required by church law to submit his resignation as archbishop to the pope when he turned 75 last year. When the resignation takes effect is up to the pope, and Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, often let bishops and archbishops serve well past retirement age.

But Benedict has been more prompt about replacing bishops, and the consensus among Catholic experts is that the next major event in Cardinal Egan’s ecclesiastic life will be the acceptance of his resignation and the anointing of his successor.

The Rev. Joseph A. O’Hare, former president of Fordham University, said, “My own expectation is that a year from now we will have a new archbishop of New York.”

Joseph Zwilling, Cardinal Egan’s spokesman, would not comment on Sunday on whether the cardinal desired retirement. “He wants to do whatever the Holy Father wants him to do,” Mr. Zwilling said. “If he’s asked to stay on, he’s delighted to stay on. If he’s asked to leave, he will leave.”

Candidates mentioned as possible replacements include Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee; Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford, who was an auxiliary bishop in New York under Cardinal Egan’s predecessor, John J. O’Connor; and Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of Puerto Rico.

As for Cardinal Egan’s plans, they have been the subject of considerable speculation. Mr. Zwilling said in an interview last year that the cardinal “expects he will stay somewhere in New York,” adding, “he will be the first to admit that he’s a city boy.”

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Mr. Zwilling said on Sunday that “Cardinal Egan has expressed his desire to remain in New York, whatever happens next.”

But Cardinal Egan is also known to have enjoyed his lengthy tenure in the Vatican, where he studied and worked for 22 years and served as an ecclesiastical judge and a canon law professor.

“I would say that it is unlikely that he would keep New York as a base of operations,” said Christopher M. Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in New Jersey. “If he goes back to Rome, he could continue to serve on panels until he is 80 — he’s still a member of the College of Cardinals. And, of course, that would make life easier for his successor. If you’re a new pastor of the parish, you don’t want the old pastor sitting around.”

Father O’Hare, however, said he had been told that the archdiocese was preparing possible retirement residences for the cardinal in the area, something the archdiocese’s spokesman would not confirm. “It’s pointless to speculate on something that might not occur for several years,” Mr. Zwilling said.

The future of the leader of one of the most important dioceses in the United States surely came up during Benedict’s visit. “The pope is listening to everything that’s going on, said and unsaid,” Professor Bellitto said. “The topic is floating underneath all of the conversations, sotto voce.”

When he does leave office, Cardinal Egan will leave behind an archdiocese transformed in many ways. Cardinal Egan has made it the cornerstone of his tenure to put the archdiocese on sounder financial footing. To do this, he has closed or will close 15 schools and 21 parishes, earning deep antipathy from some parishioners. The cardinal’s public-relations difficulties have not been helped by a personal style that many have found chilly and imperious, especially compared to that of his gregarious predecessor, Cardinal O’Connor.

Cardinal Egan has also had to deal with the effects of the sex-abuse scandals, and the decline in candidates for the priesthood, which he has been unable to stem. The archdiocese’s seminary, St. Joseph’s in Yonkers, where Cardinal Egan appeared by Pope Benedict’s side on Saturday, expects to ordain just six men in May.

All of which, Father Reese said, makes a compelling case for leaving office on a high note.

“Every retired bishop I’ve ever talked to said he wished he’d retired earlier, that he didn’t realize how much fun he was going to have as a retired bishop,” Father Reese said. “They get all the respect and the fun of being a bishop without the responsibilities.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B5 of the New York edition with the headline: Egan May Be Leaving the Archdiocese Soon, Now That a Historic Visit Has Ended. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe